


Yorshk's Big Plan

by q00zan



Category: HEARTBEAT (Video Game)
Genre: Cooking, Funny, Gen, Revenge, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 19:10:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19979077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/q00zan/pseuds/q00zan
Summary: Yorshk's been cooking up a plan to get revenge on her enemy, Eve Staccato. She comes up with an extraordinary solution...





	Yorshk's Big Plan

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was written for Nehc's birthday!  
> There's also art in this fic by Whim, which was also one of the birthday gifts to Nehc. Thank you for letting me put it in the fanfic!
> 
> Hope you enjoy this little nice fanfic!

Clap!

A rather dusty and heavy book - someone just closed it, then put it back on the shelf. It was barely read. Yet it helped.

“Is It Right For Me? Yes. Damn right it is,” Yorshk said, smiling to herself. “Time to get to work…”

She finally left her quarters in the barracks building and went downstairs, where her loyal kunekune agents greeted their general. Quite a while passed since the conflict between Yorshk and Eve, and Voso managed to gather more specialists for her team. Although… this time she wanted to do what’s right for her, and she wished to do so on her own.

“General! You’ve been locked up in there for so long. Have you mastered a plan for us to carry out?” one of her soldiers asked.

“No. It’s a mission I shall complete myself. However, I will need your help prior to my departure. Attention! Listen up!” she commanded and then stood still, waiting for all agents to assemble right in front of her.

...

“Hey, man, come on. I was just enjoying dinner. You kidnap a person having dinner? Bring them to some creepy castle?”

“Ma’am! We found someone willing to share information!”

Yorshk was presented with a chubby tanuki Mogwai, who seemed really, really upset with the fact she’s been summoned to the Den in such fashion.

“Willing?! You thugs!”

“Is it true? Could it be you know something of Eve Staccato’s weaknesses?” Yorshk asked, genuinely intrigued, despite the fact her agents abducted someone. She never forbade such methods. Anything had to be done to win, finally, once and for all.

“Well… I mean… I know where she lives, and I kind of had the chance to look around her room once…” the tanuki began talking about the target. She’s been giving this speech about Staccato household for quite a while - so long and tiresome that the agents to her sides almost fell asleep while still standing. Yorshk, on the other hand, hasn’t blinked once, listening to the little mogwai, which also really frightened the poor captive. Yet, as soon as she mentioned something about an allergy Eve supposedly had, Voso’s dark eyes twitched, she opened her mouth and interrupted the nervous tale:

“An allergy?”

“Yeah… I mean. I had fridge privileges there. I remember she said something about an allergy. But I can’t remember. And I also ate a sandwich she kept under a pillow…”

“What was in that sandwich? That could help me narrow the search,” Yorshk leaned in, so close to the tanuki’s face that the poor captive could feel the kunekune’s cold breath on her fur.

“H-ham?.. And… b-bread. And some cheese, I think. Ma-may-maybe lettuce?” the mogwai said, almost shaking.

“Lettuce, huh. A sandwich under the pillow. What a silly thing to do. Of course Eve Staccato would do a dumb thing like that. Laughable. Isn’t that just laughable?” she asked, turning to her agents. They shook a bit, waking up from the long story the tanuki told.

“Oh? Yes! How dumb is that?!” they said in unison. One of the agents somewhere in the back seemed very upset, mumbling, “But I do that…”

“It is decided, then. I shall find out myself. And then I will punish Eve Staccato for ruining my reputation, and the prestige of my team! That slanderous conjurer… Agents! Attention! Listen up! My ship sails in the morning. I need to prepare for the journey…” Voso said, fixing the collar on her jacket.

“Ma’am, wouldn’t it be easier to blend in if you just possessed a mogwai such as this one?” an agent suggested, putting a hand on the tanuki’s shoulder, which made the poor girl yelp in fear. She then calmed down when Yorshk announced, once again:

“I do this myself. Bring me… the hairbrush.”

Everyone in the room gasped.

...

“So, no prior experience?”

“Not in this kind of position, no.”

“Which one did you have?”

“... Management.”

“Well, that’s taken by me, he-he-he,” Liang laughed, taking a sip from his little cup of coffee. It was almost too small for him. He put it back down onto the round wooden table they were sitting at, and looked at the papers he’d been given once more.

Yorshk was right across the table, sitting with her back straightened, her hands grasping onto a big vanilla milkshake. She’d barely drunk any of it, listening to Liang and answering questions.

“Personal qualities? Good qualities?”

“What sort of qualities can they be, if they’re not good?”

“So, smart. I get it.”

“I also specialize in… troubleshooting. Keeping up with schedule isn’t a problem. And…” she was telling him, but got interrupted.

“Right, I see, to be honest, I’m pretty sure you’re fit for the job anyway. It’s a little biased, but since you’re friends with Eve, I have little doubt. Although, she does make friends with everyone she meets, especially nowadays. Wish she’d visit more,” Liang said, fiddling with the little cup - now empty. This cafe opened in Sunwich recently, and the owner struck a deal with Staccato - the new place wouldn’t sell any pastry or the like, and Sunwich Shoppe would cease selling coffee and tea, a compromise to avoid unhealthy competition from being situated too close in a small town.

“She’ll be gone for long?”

“Don’t know. But she’ll be surprised to see you working here, no doubt! Ha-ha…”

“Ho-ho, yes, I’m sure she’d be overjoyed,” Yorshk said, catching the straw with her lips and sipping on the milkshake, drinking half of it one go. It wasn’t enough to quench her thirst for revenge.

...

She was ready to take on any challenge. Obviously, disguising and acting natural in any sort of environment was part of her training, which never left her, yet there was something almost humiliating to her about personally dressing up into the Sunwich Shoppe uniform. Perhaps, it was because most of it featured the damn green star Eve always had on her. Yorshk was given a t-shirt, an apron similar to the one Liang was wearing at work. She had her own black trousers on and she also settled for some simple shoes to wear indoors. Not as elegant as she usually was, but nothing could be done. One thing Voso refused was to wear a visor with the shop’s colours on it - Liang seemed a bit upset, since he had ordered a whole box of those for future employees. Yorshk suggested he could make ro-bits wear them, and both of them had fun chasing the robots around the shop, fixing the hats on top of their metal heads. She had already made a sacrifice to seem more down to earth - her agents spent hours brushing her hair and tying it into a long tail behind. Some strands of her hair escaped though, yet she still looked fine. At least she thought so and reassured herself, despite much preferring her old look.

“Well now! It suits you well! It’s like you’re working here, he-heh,” Liang said. They were about to open shop, or so Voso thought. It was really, really early in the morning. Could it be Sunwich shoppers wake up at this time?

“I… do work here,” Yorshk said, fixing her apron just a little bit.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it’s baking time!” the old man said, clapping his hands together once and rubbing them, as he walked to the kitchen then.

“Baking?! I…”

“Yeah, baking? We bake stuff, too.”

“I thought this was a shop…”

“Well, it is, but also a bakery. It’s been this way for ages. And it was in the contract, don’t look at me like that! Could it be Eve never told you how she’d work here? She’s my best dough prepper…” he told Yorshk, smiling really wide in the end. Liang was very proud of his granddaughter.

“The best dough prepper…”

Voso followed him to the kitchen. What seemed like annoyance at first turned into another opportunity to one-up the nasty conjurer. Chuckling quietly - which freaked Liang out a bit - she watched the old man show her the basics of preparing everything for the morning bake. Not only would Yorshk soon find out Eve Staccato’s ultimate weakness, but she’d also become the best dough prepper, better than that silly girl.

…

“Look, I don’t know how to explain it to you exactly, but that’s not rye bread. I mean, it’s dark, yes, but that’s because you burnt the whole batch!” Liang said, fidgeting around Yorshk, who’s been standing with a tray full of charcoal dark burnt buns. She looked down at those, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Can’t we just sell them anyway? Surely, humans aren’t cunning enough to see the dif…” she began saying. Then she felt Liang’s stern stare on herself and decided not to elaborate.

“You failed. The first pancake is always lumpy, you know. You’ll learn,” he said, sighing, as he gave her shoulder a couple of pats. He didn’t seem cross with her.

“Pancake?.. But…”

“It’s a saying. Anyway. Now watch closely, and we’ll finish this batch.”

She turned around a bit to sniffle just a little, looking down at the poor charred buns. Yorshk put those away, got herself back together and worked hard. Or observed, that is.

All she had to do was to gain access to the fridge, survive this horror to the lunch break. Then she could definitely find out what exactly Eve was allergic to - either through examination or conversation. Poisoning the silly ambassador wouldn’t be difficult from then on.

Shoppers came and left, bought things, looked around. Some didn’t mind Yorshk working there, some were surprised and glad to see a new face in town. An old small lady also visited - Voso could feel that she’s a conjurer, but the customer never really paid any attention to the kunekune. Yorshk thought that the woman’s eyesight was poor. The work day had been going fine enough. Until…

“Dude! Let’s go quick, I wanted to go look at the cards shop after this… They say they restocked with new card sets.

“Okay… Huh. It smells like there was a fire.”

Familiar voices. Yorshk could feel cold sweat running down her neck. Soon enough, Rex and Troz entered the shop, the manticore as loud as ever, and the cerberus somehow alert - perhaps she had sensed kunekune’s presence before going in. Voso really regret she didn’t have a silly visor to pull down and hide her face somewhat. The last thing she wanted is to get ridiculed by these two.

“Hey dud- grampa!” Rex said, leaning onto the counter a little bit, even looking over it curiously.

“Hello there younglings,” Liang greeted them, seemingly worried about the duo from Solburg breaking something.

“Got the buns? The long ones. The long dudes,” Rex asked, moving her hands to show about how long the ‘dudes’ usually were.

“Baguettes. They’re called baguettes… and yes, in fact, we do, we baked some earlier with our newest employee. We also have some pastry…”

Voso gulped, standing still, frozen. She cursed at Liang internally, hoping the two wouldn’t pay attention to her.

“I don’t know snowverian, dude. They’re gonna be long dudes to me.”

“Mary, would you be so kind to get a couple of baguettes for us here?” Staccato asked Yorshk. She somehow forced herself to walk away just a bit to the shelves where the breads were. Slowly, she brought them to the counter, and Rex was there, staring right at her. As Liang was counting how much the customers would have to pay, the manticore’s eyes suddenly glimmered with joy, yet mischievous.

“Holy frick...” she whispered, reaching for a smartphone. Yorshk already said goodbye to her reputation, or what remained of it after the multiple defeats Eve Staccato had inflicted on her. Something unexpected happened though - the cerberus suddenly walked in front of her friend and looked right up at Yorshk.

“Do you sell hamburger?..” she asked, sniffing a couple of times. Troz looked and sounded like a very sleepy puppy. Rex was right behind her, trying to get the cerberus to listen to her discovery, but Naberius didn’t seem to care.

“Troz, please, I had told you many times, we don’t server hamburger here. Don’t harass my new employee,” Liang warned the couple of troublemakers.

“Okay… Wuff. Let’s go, Rex. We’ll come back when you have hamburger…”

Somehow, she even grabbed her manticore friend by the hand, then held the bag of baguettes under her arm, and left the store. Perhaps, she didn’t want Rex anywhere near Yorshk. Voso appreciated that.

“You seemed very tense. You know those two?” Staccato asked his new employee after the troublemakers had left.

“... Maybe.”

“Don’t worry. Nobody here is going let anyone bully you. On the other hand, would you say we really need to start making hamburgers here?”

Voso didn’t say much, but was at the same time feeling triumphant that the old Staccato still didn’t know who she really was, and had no clue about her plan, but also felt really thankful. Somehow.

...

Each day felt rather the same. The morning bake, opening shop, meeting all locals, talking to random tourists and people passing by, even ‘pilgrims’ who were there to see the home of the new ambassador. It really annoyed Yorshk, because sometimes she’d have to tell them one of many stories Liang would usually share with visitors about his granddaughter. It annoyed her. At first. Slowly, she could feel herself growing rather indifferent towards mentions of Eve. Surprisingly, the conjurer - judging by the stories - wasn’t as horrible as Yorshk always imagined. Then again, could she trust all that?

In the mornings she’d help Liang with baking. In fact, she even managed to get quite better at it, although she still couldn’t beat Eve in being the best prepper. She was, however, commended for her hard work and precision when it came to helping with more elegant pastry, and even making some on her own.

And each of the things they baked - a bun, a bread, a cake or anything - Liang would have some sort of comment about, usually revolving around his family, or someone else. He’d tell her who in town likes which kind of cake, who wakes up early and who comes in late. Yet Yorshk still couldn’t get the important details. Eve seemingly loved everything that was baked at the shop. Voso hoped one day they’d get to cooking that certain food Eve just couldn’t handle. Her mission would be almost over.

One day, the opportunity came right into Voso’s hands. A tanuki - apparently some part-timer hired by Liang - brought a large bag of fresh, fine walnuts. And the old man seemingly paid quite much for those.

“We’ll be making our famous walnut cupcakes today. Everyone loves those. Only those funny tanuki know where the best walnuts grow in the forests. I keep telling everyone it’s a secret recipe, but really I’m just relying on my suppliers…” Staccato chuckled, “I’m just joshing. Everyone in town knows I’m dealing with tanuki. Because I pay well!”

“Supposedly…” Yorshk said, a bit quiet, wondering if the old man had anything else to say about that day’s ingredients.

“Poor Eve. She actually loved how these cupcakes tasted. Too bad…”

“Too bad?”

“She can’t eat those, she has very, very serious allergy to walnuts, apparently. And she still tried it once. Was pretty harsh on her…” Staccato said, sighing heavily.

“Oh no, oh no. How much did she have?” Yorshk asked with fake curiosity.

“A couple of bites.”

Just a bit to make the ambassador feel horrible enough for her family to remember it? That was definitely what Voso had been looking for. She couldn’t even resist a little chuckle at it, a menacing one - the one she hadn’t done in a while. Somehow, it felt weird suddenly getting such malicious thoughts. Yorshk didn’t wish to admit so - but she grew fond of her new place of work.  
She silently watched the old Staccato prepare the cupcakes. All she’d need to do later is to prepare something for Eve that would contain enough of the dreaded walnuts to make her squirm, and…

…

Eve Staccato was coming back to town. For that occasion, her grandfather wanted to hold a feast - or, that is, something resembling one. It would be mostly anything that’s baked at the shop, without a doubt. Yet this time he offered Yorshk to help him with the cooking, for additional pay. Voso, in return, said she’d be happy to do so for free, and also wished to make something special on her own for Eve, it would be a surprise. The old man seemed very happy to hear that, even excited. Yorshk just kept smiling, all the time while helping him prepare what he had in mind, and later on. When she was alone in the kitchen. Earlier, she grabbed quite a bit of those walnuts - she saved them from the day they had been delivered to Sunwich Shoppe.

She got to work. Measuring, stuffing, prepping, forming, carefully filling, adding, cutting, re-doing - if needed - she produced several nice little buns with filling. She watched the oven, thinking to herself, a lot.

…

Eve was finally home, although Klein and Nyx were apparently late. Just what Yorshk needed. Without a doubt, the cat sith and the reaper wouldn’t let her get any close to the young ambassador.

Liang invited her to the ‘feast’ and, surprisingly, invited his new employee, too. Eve was bewildered, frozen in place when she saw Yorshk sit down with them. Truth be told - she was so excited to be back home that she didn’t even notice someone else behind the counter at first. In the end, though, the foolish conjurer was, in fact, happy to see Voso: she complimented Yorshk on her new hairstyle, cheered her on and hoped the work hadn’t been too tiring for her. Eve didn’t want to have enemies. Convenient. Voso nodded along, politely, sometimes letting a chuckle out, or smiling, or saying something almost meaningless. After a nice first part of the meal, she decided to present Eve with the surprise she’d baked.

“Since I started working here, I’ve learned quite a bit about baking. I know they may not look that great, but I thought we could… put our differences aside. Maybe resolve some, erm, issues…” Yorshk said, pushing a plate with the buns to Eve.

“Oh… that’s so nice of you, I would have never thought you’d get into baking! These look yummy. Can I eat one now?” young Staccato asked, almost as if she really needed permission.

“Well, you travelled a lot. You probably need to eat more. Don’t be shy,” her grandfather said.

Yorshk squinted, watching the ambassador closely. She felt very nervous. She could barely resist a shudder now and then.

Eve grabbed one of the soft, nice buns she’d been offered, brought it up to her mouth, and without any further delay - bit a large chunk of it off. She chewed it thoroughly. Then again. And again. Eve was moving onto the next one, and suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and coughed again and again. Something red was on her lips...

“Are you okay? How many times did we all tell you to be patient with your food…” her grandfather grumbled, giving Eve several strong pats on the back, as she kept coughing.

“S-sorry! Hah. It was just so tasty, I couldn’t stop!” young Staccato said, wiping her mouth with her hand really quick, the red gone from her lips then, “how’d know I love strawberry jam?!”

Yorshk laughed, covering her mouth with her hand slightly.

“Your grandfather is really talkative, let’s say that…”

…

Just a week later, Yorshk finally quit her job at Sunwich Shoppe, but recommended someone else for the position - though Liang seemed very upset to let go anyway. Eve often talked to Yorshk, even when Klein and Nyx were around the house later on - they had a couple of fights and unpleasant episodes with Voso, obviously, but in the end settled down and decided to mind their own business. After all, Yorshk proved to be rather trustworthy and harmless ever since she took the job. Before leaving, she promised she’d visit them again some time, which didn’t excite the mogwai in Staccato’s household very much, but the humans seemed interested to meet her again.

Back in the Den, her kunekune team was fascinated with the general’s new hairstyle. Some even copied it, which she didn’t mind. Every mogwai noticed that Voso returned in high spirits, and remained very calm and relaxed most of the time.


End file.
